Book Dorian Gray vs. Movie Dorian Grays (Looking at the end scenes)

The Picture of Dorian Gray has a lot of different film adaptations. When I was looking at movies to use for this post, I ended up finding ten and I think there may even be more I did not find. This does not surprise me considering how popular this book is.
Putting all the movies aside, when it comes to the book I feel that the most important part is the end when Dorian dies. It is important because the whole book is leading up to this moment. There are parts in the novel where we think Dorian will end up fine but it all leads down to this scene:
“He looked round and saw the knife that had stabbed Basil Hallward. He had cleaned it many times, till there was no stain left upon it. It was bright, and glistened. As it had killed the painter, so it would kill the painter’s work, and all that that meant. It would kill the past, and when that was dead, he would be free. It would kill this monstrous soul-life, and without its hideous warnings, he would be at peace. He seized the thing, and stabbed the picture with it. There was a cry heard, and a crash” (Wilde, p.164).
Not too long after this scene the servants end up finding him dead but he does not look like the young, beautiful Dorian Gray. Instead they find an old, wither, and wrinkled man (Wilde, p.165). When Dorian does stab the painting it also seems like he does not know what the painting would do to him. If he knew it would have killed him he might not have stabbed it.
Out of the ten movies I found there were three that stood out to me. They are The Picture of Dorian Gray (1973 TV Movie), Dorian Gray (2009), and The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (2003). One movie is very close to the book while the other two kill Dorian in different ways.

The 1973 TV Movie seems to be the closest to the book. The picture above is kind of hard to see but in it we have Dorian stabbing the picture with the knife he used to kill Basil. There is also an inner monologue with this movie and it almost sounds like the monologue is reading right from the book which adds to the anger Dorian is feeling at this moment (the Picture of Dorian Gray, 1973). Here it also seems like Dorian has not clue that stabbing this picture will harm him in any way just like the book. Even with this scene being close to the book there were others  that were not.

This Dorian Gray movie is a lot different than the 1973 one. The reason the picture is on fire is the fact that minutes before this scene Dorian ends up having a fight with Lord Henry. The reason for the fight is the fact that Henry ends up seeing the picture and calls Dorian a monster. Henry then sets the picture on fire. Dorian still ends up stabbing the picture and he is aware that this will kill him. Moments before he stabs the picture he prevents a woman (who I believe is Hetty Merton, who was a girl Dorian in the book lets go for her own sake) from entering the room. He ends up telling her that she can have his love which sounds like that he knew he would not make it out of this (Dorian Gray, 2009). It seems like here Dorian is doing this not only to kill the “monster” of the painting but to be redeemed in the end. This adds a moral that the book does not have.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen is a little bit different than the other two movies mention. This movie has Dorian Gray in it but it also has a lot of other fictional characters like Mina Harker (yes the one from Dracula. She is also a vampire in this movie and had a thing with Dorian in the past). Dorian ends up working for the bad guys in  and dies due to his portrait. This death scene is a little bit different because all Dorian has to do is look at his picture to die. He dies when he is fighting with Mina and she is the one who shows him the picture. He also knows in this one just like the last movie, that this picture will end up killing him. This is seen when Dorian sees the picture and starts to scream (The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, 2003). I am wondering why the writer decided to do this because it makes it seem like Dorian is a coward. In the end, it does make for a very dramatic death and revenge scene.
Looking at all of these death scenes it make me wonder what is in store with the next Dorian Gray movie. The next person who writes it should look a lot deeper into the last few pages in the book. It would be interesting to see how a director and writer could build up their movie a bit better to this last scene.

Works Cited

Dorian Gray. Dir. Oliver Parker. Perf. Ben Barnes, Colin Firth, and Rebecca Hall. MPC/E1

Entertainment Distribution, 2009. DVD.
The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. Dir. Stephen Norrington. Perf. Sean Connery, Stuart

Townsend, and Peta Wilson. Twentieth Century Fox, 2003. DVD.
The Picture of Dorian Gray. Dir. Glenn Jordan. Perf. Shane Briant,Charles Aidman, and Nigel

Davenport. Dan Curtis Productions/ ABC, 1973. TV Movie.
Wilde, Oscar. The Picture of Dorian Gray. New York: Dover Publications, 1993. Print.